• You need understand only that they are more dangerous than anyone you have ever battled, excepting perhaps vampires defending their nest. They do not just believe, they know. Their devil god has spoken to each of them directly and has given each of them a look into a paradise where they will spend eternity. They will do anything because they know there is no penalty to compare with their coming reward. They fear nothing. They are saved and will be born again, and concrete evidence has been given them for this. They need take the word of no one but their god himself. Glen Cook, Cold Copper Tears

We have no such certainty. Our God has not given us a glimpse of eternity. Everything we believe, everything we have, is by faith. The only solid piece of evidence we have is the Bible. And there are plenty of people attacking that every day.

On the other hand, if we accept that the Bible is true, and that the God described in the Bible exists, and that we are His because we accepted His sacrifice he made to purchase us from sin, we have a sort of glimpse into the future promised us. And better still we have a picture of the One who promises that future for those who come to Him.

Based on those things, we should be willing to do whatever we can for our God. He has not asked us to throw away our lives attacking His enemies, as in the story. But He has asked us to live out our lives in a manner consistent with His word, and seek to spread the word. If you are not living for Christ now, what are you living for? What would you have to give up to live for Him, and what is its value? If God did ask us to literally lose our lives in His service, what would we be giving up on in comparison to what He has in store for us?

The flip side of that is presumably we could merely accept Christ as our savior, which guarantees our entry into heaven and eternity spent with God, instead of the other place. (Maybe. There is some question whether a person who "prays to receive Christ", but then lives his live pretty much the same as he did before, is really saved at all. See here.) Heaven is all glorious, and even the believer who does little during his life for Christ gets to experience it. The Bible does not describe any slums in heaven.


See bible - random notes - 2012-09-26 Are you sure? for another idea from the same passage from the same book.